B&G

I agree with all of the other gals - consult with a GOOD, RELIABLE plastic surgeon and get their recovery timeframe. Each surgeon is different and each patient is different. Recovery times will vary due to the surgeon's technique, your body's bruising and swelling tolerance, and any physical activity you allow yourself to do immediately following the surgery. =)

They're seriously just not worth it. And whatever you do, avoid Alli at all costs.

Quote: Originally Posted by akh all that stuff you've been doing, finalizing plans, etc ... it's coming fast! Yeah. Unfortunately, I'm one of "those" people who has everything listed in a spreadsheet and is constantly going over it - even though the contents of the spreadsheet aren't changing often enough to justify the obsession.

Quote: Originally Posted by akh lol - good detective work! i am born & raised in MN, but Paul is born & raised in the Chicago area (Park Ridge). the only time we really clash is NFL season! Hysterical! I grew up in Edison Park, right next door to Park Ridge! And even though I'm a native Chicagoian, I tend to clash with the rest of the town when it comes to football season. Although I do appreciate the Bears, I'm a Cowboys fan. LOL.

Quote: Originally Posted by akh you're not stalking me at all .... i am almost as excited for you as you guys are, crazy, eh? i'm going to be chasing you down after your wedding to see all of the pics and video (if any)! i should know this - who are you using as your photog? We hired the fabulous Cooper Carras to photograph our wedding. We love his style and I absolutely love his fashion edge...And we're getting so ancy to finally meet him, it's crazy!

Quote: actually, there are a TON more of gals from Chicago - i don't think i even realized you were from Chicago until now! i've moved to Mpls, so not there anymore - but i visit often! the four of us (me, Natalie, Jenetta, and Lenita) met for drinks one night at Wild Fire - there were supposed to be like 8-10 of us, but not sure what happened to everyone! we had a great time - i know it was in the winter, since there was a big snow storm that kept some people away. anyway - if you do plan another get togegether let me know! my sister still lives in chicago - but only for another week. her and her partner and moving to Pittsburgh for her to go to school. Aww, we missed it! I figured from your Vikings icon that you were in MN now and not previously!

Quote: Originally Posted by starchild That sucks and kinda makes me not like Dreams as much....I'm surprised too because a lot of smaller places are not only gay friendly but gay owned and operated. Here are some good guides of gay friendly everything if you're going outside of Dreams to hang out. I found them when I was looking for a restaurant we used to go to called Cafe Bohemio. If you have time, check it out. It's in the romantic zone (old town) in a little square, owned by these 2 guys from S.F. who are the sweetest and will sit down and talk with you (and give free shots!) I was going to have my WD there but couldn't work it out in time. gayguide Vallarta - Gay Puerto Vallarta Guide Puerto Vallarta Gay Travel Guide - Gay Hotels Beach Bars Cruise Clubs Shopping Restaurants Photos Doin it Right in Puerto Vallarta - Gay Friendly Puerto Vallarta Hey starchild, thank you so much for the links! You know, it gave us a somewhat yucky taste about Dreams at first...But then we realized that we wouldn't have wanted our wedding to take place on their beach where all of the resort guests could gawk at two women in wedding dressing obviously marrying one another. =) We've heard that a lot of the restaurants are fabulous, and we'll have to go check them out. We'll be in Vallarta for two and a half weeks, so we'll have the time to explore!

Quote: Originally Posted by akh sorry, i just asked you a question in another thread - but you've answered it here. you're right - it all worked out for the best in the end - you're going to love Caletas!! can paul and i, my sister and her partner, and my mom and her partner all come to your wedding!? hell - let's really shock them! lol All of you are more than welcome. =) It's going to be absolutely, positively ridiculous.

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome! Yep - our wedding is coming up pretty quickly. 77 days to be exact...Which we've realized is 2 months, 2 weeks and 2 days from now (I've been keeping an exact count)! After watching Ann's slideshow and video (sorry to have stalked you Ann, but we had our first taste of Caletas through you!), having our first makeup and hair trial, finally ordering our invitations, receiving notification that Brooke's dress is ready and talking to Nicole for the first time...All in one week's time...We've both realized how quickly our wedding is approaching, how many things we need to accomplish and how incredibly excited we are. But because I'm one of the most anal retentive people of all time, I've already immersed myself in projects like creating full CDs of music for the DJ to play during our cocktail hour, etc. =)

helloooo everyone! i'm not sure that either brooke or myself properly introduced ourselves in the forums...even though we've been on here for awhile! we're getting married on november 5th at Las Caletas, which is in only 81 days, and we can't be more excited!

Quote: Originally Posted by akh hey Lenita - good to see you pop in here - how are things?! thanks for the kind words ... i can't believe that all 4 BDW Chicago gals are married now - me, you, Jenetta, and Natalie! there are THAT many chicago brides on here? we should plan a little dinner...or a get-together for drinks...so brooke and i can sit there and listen to all of you talk about your weddings and pump us up even more! (still my favorite icon)

WOW. that was fabulous! thank you so, so, so much for taking the time to post all of that information on the site. i know that if it was as beneficial to other brides as it was to me, you've helped quite a few people! it was funny to read your review of dreams and your welcome dinner, as brooke and i have been expecting to run into some problems with them. we knew that it was mexico and we figured that things would work out the way that they were meant to! i'm not sure who our "event coordinator" is, seeing as how they have no idea that we're a same-sex couple and think that our events are "family parties" (for anyone who reads this, dreams was not very accommodating when it came to a same-sex ceremony...or anything like that). i know that brooke has been in contact with the resort while i've been doing most of the communicating with nicole and our photographer. it's scary! we're having BOTH our welcome dinner and rehearsal dinner at the resort. knowing our luck, they'll forget to write the information down and neither will actually take place. *laughing* as for las caletas, we are ridiculously excited. nicole has been nothing but amazing and we can't wait to see the magic that she works in person! if she was that good with one bride, i can't wait to see how she deals with two at the same time! =)

Quote: Originally Posted by akh we did have our welcome dinner at Dreams - and I have to be honest, there wasn't much that went right! the food was good, but that was about it. have you had a chance to read my review? hopefully the new WC is better, but i don't have much good to say about Marilu. here's my review: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...ooooooong.html ha - i didn't know they weren't gay friendly. oh well - since more than half of my family falls under that category, i bet they were a little surprised! last night B and i were talking about your wedding, pictures and video, and she mentioned to me that she read your review which included information about dreams. naturally, i felt a bit silly when i realized that i asked you questions which you had already answered. so thank you for posting the link, i'm going to go read it now. as for dreams not being gay friendly, it's pretty interesting. puerto vallarta is a pretty progressive town and we were a bit surprised to find out that none of the major resorts in the area allowed same-sex weddings on their property. when we had originally decided on getting married in PV, we contacted dreams about their wedding package...only to find out that they're a "family resort" and would not be able to accommodate us in that respect. i thank them for saying that, because we ended up finding Las Caletas, but we're pretty eager to see their reaction during our poolside rehearsal dinner where speeches are given and we show a slideshow presentation on a huge screen. *laughing*

Quote: Originally Posted by akh i actually didn't cry that day - but i did looking at the pictures. paul cried though. i think i was just taking it all in that day, but watching the pics really got me. we met with nicole at Dreams a few days before the wedding and we gave her everything that day so she took care of it all. we never did a site visit or walk-thru. she came to Dreams to meet us, so it was super easy for us! the day of the wedding, all we had with us was everything we needed to get ready and change into, etc. i think i'm a big fan of the idea of her coming to dreams (we're staying there too) to meet with us. although i want to have a walk-through, i am somewhat excited at the prospect of being surprised when we get there on our wedding day! did you guys have your welcome dinner at the resort? we're having both our welcome dinner and rehearsal dinner at dreams...since they aren't very gay friendly, they "think" that we're having two big "family" parties. i think the huge fireworks display we're having after our welcome dinner with the big heart and b + g inside of it might give it away. did you enjoy the resort? any complaints? how was the food? atmosphere? rooms? service? (i'm a big, big fan of this animation.)

Quote: Originally Posted by akh i am sure they could remove those thatched thingys, heck, by the end of the night they were almost all off anyway. they may just do that for presentation sake - i don't know that they actually served a purpose other than to look nice. *laughing* we just want to be able to dance like crazy! if you, by any chance, happen to stumble across the seating charts for larger parties, i'd love to see it. =) or you can directly email it, if you'd like... [email protected]

ann, you typed so much and so quickly! i'm impressed! thanks for sending over your seating chart. we're trying to figure out how we're going to get everyone seated, who we're going to put on each level, etc. as it stands right now, we're looking at having in between 80-85 guests, not including brooke and myself at the head table. from what nicole told us, 50 people is usually the common number for guests on the top terrace. we were thinking of having our head table along with six tables of eight on the top terrace, with three tables of six and two tables of eight on the lower terrace. how we're going to split people up? i have absolutely no clue! we were planning on having a choreographed dance for our first dance but, after realizing that the dance floor actually had the thatch squares, we realized that it wasn't going to be the smartest idea. do you think that they can remove the thatch things on the dancefloor so it's just the wood? hmmm...

Quote: Originally Posted by CHOCSIE Ok ladies, I have tried and tried to create a logo. I got an ok one done in word using a frame type clip art. It sucks really... Can someone please help me? what type of logo are you looking for?

your photos? yeah - they're everything that we've (brooke and i) ever dreamed of. leigh captured the island beautifully and gave all of us future LC brides a gorgeous visual of what we're in for. when i was watching your slideshow, i kept picturing myself in all of the settings shown - knowing that i have just two months and three weeks to wait. i said to brooke, "if THEIR wedding pictures made me bawl my eyes out, how the hell am i supposed to maintain my composure during OUR own wedding?" oy. as for the planning, nicole has been absolutely amazing...and i'm sure that she's going to be really busy over the next few weeks answering all of her emails. =) question! did you guys bring your wedding favors over when you went for your walk-through or did you bring them over on the boat the morning of your wedding?

alright...ladies who have already had their LC weddings? these questions are for you! did anyone out there have around 80 guests? if so, your guests were split between the upper and lower terraces during dinner, correct? how did you choose to setup the tables? how many people per table? did you have a special way that you had the tables organized? anyone out there take advantage of the very inexpensive spa services when they were at LC before the wedding? is the dancefloor just the thatch squares which were previously the aisle? is there anything underneath them, like a hard surface? who had the dj? =) i know, lots of questions...we're busy bees right now and quite excited. =)

we've been planning like crazy...and when i mean crazy, i literally mean running around like chickens with our heads cut off (which is kind of a gross analogy considering that we're both vegetarians). ann - as for which one of us posted that last reply about your slideshow, that was me (gen). we both tend to check the forums every once and awhile but i have a tendency to post sporadically. when i saw that there was a link up to your pictures, i couldn't want to see them...and when they opened, the SECOND i heard "when you say nothing at all", i completely lost my composure. i turned around, looked at brooke and said, "i can't wait to feel all of those things that she felt when we get married." =)

Ann... Oh my god, your slideshow had me bawling. I absolutely, 100%, cannot wait until our wedding!

hey there mora.. ourselves and all of our guests are staying at dreams (we're staying there for a week and two days). we're getting married at las caletas. and we're going to vallarta palace for our honeymoon. we originally looked into getting married at dreams, but since we are not a traditional couple, they were not willing to host our service on their property. we decided that we were still going to use the resort for their accommodations (despite their morality policies) because we have heard nothing but wonderful things from friends and family who have recently stayed there and we are having a decent number of guests flying in for our wedding. just as everyone has already said, the wedding coordinator is virtually impossible to get in touch with. we have been in touch with other employees from their events department regarding setting up a poolside welcome dinner for our guests and, just as with the wedding coordinator, the information they've sent is far from reliable. as a matter of fact, we've received different answers from two people in the department. as for las caletas, i cannot say enough positive things about our experience with adventure weddings and their wedding coordinator, nicole. she has really turned out to be a blessing in disguise when it comes to planning and i can't even begin to explain how professional and courteous she is. getting married on a private beach where there will be no spectators was definitely part of what sealed our decision. from what i understand, beach weddings at dreams are visible to any of the other guests and only a certain area of the beach is roped off... good luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by kara Hi there. We actually had our wedding (ceremony and reception) at a place called Epoca. I am sure they would do a rehearsal for you. It is a nice open air place right on the beach close to the canal (market). The easy part was that the owner is an American so we were able to pay in dollars and there was NO language barrier. The food was spectacular, the service was incredible and the entire event was arranged through email. The website is época : A Beachfront Restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico if you are interested and the owners name is Kurt. We paid $35 a head for GREAT food and the liquer was based on numbers of bottles opened. But I am willing to bet he would work with you based on your budget. I will be happy to send you pictures of my ceremony if you'd like (I havent quite figured out the posting thing yet) thank you so much for the information, kara. the restaurant and the food look wonderful. i will be contacting them today!

i can't believe that ann's wedding is in two days! how exciting! we debated between all of the music options and, after much talk, we decided that we are going with the dj..however, we are bringing CDs for him to play throughout certain parts of our day so that we aren't relinquishing all control. we are bringing music for him to play for our ceremony, through the cocktail hour which follows and during the dinner. we are also bringing a CD with music for all of the special dances (first dance, daddy-daughter dance) that we are having. in the end, we figured that we wanted not only ourselves but all of our guests (80 of them, ouch!) to be relaxed throughout the entire evening. we wanted someone to host our reception and announce all of the dances, just as we would've done if we were getting married at home. =)

Thanks guys for the help! =)